March 14, 2007
I need some β-blockers STAT.
I say that not because I'm hypertensive or because I'm having heart palpitations--at least not at the moment. I'm saying it because, after reading the latest brave foray into antievolutionary ignorance by--as much as I hate to admit it--a fellow surgeon named Dr.…
March 13, 2007
For the last 50 years, zoo animals around the world have been tricked into painting. In many cases, the "art" has fetched big bucks: up to $25,000 for Chimp and Orangutan work. It's time for a comprehensive art show to compare styles:
Maggie, Sea Lion, Pittsburgh Zoo
Congo, Chimpanzee, London (…
March 13, 2007
Apparently, our President brings "bad energy" wherever he goes, requiring some strong woo to cleanse the area after he leaves:
Maya leaders are to perform a special cleaning ceremony at ancient ruins to clear bad energy after a visit by President Bush.
Mr Bush is due at the Mayan ruins of Iximche…
March 13, 2007
I'm on the record multiple times as saying that I reject the entire concept and nomenclature of "alternative medicine" as being distinct from "conventional" medicine as a false dichotomy, when in reality there should be just "medicine." Moreover, this "medicine" remaining should, whenever possible…
March 12, 2007
With nearly 20 months to go before the election itself and 10 months before even the first primaries, I'm already bored with the Presidential election of 2008. None of the current candidates does anything for me. One's a total lightweight who's in no way ready to be President, and I utterly loathe…
March 12, 2007
One of my favorite calendars it The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said. Each day, this gem of a calendar provides me with examples of idiotic statements that are truly jaw-dropping. Every so often, when I'm in the mood, I think I'll quote from past editions for your amusement. Today's stupid quote…
March 12, 2007
It figures.
After my having written repeated debunkings of various physicians who are creationists (mostly of the "intelligent design" variety), in retrospect I should have seen this one coming. I should have seen that the Discovery Institute, eager to use anyone they can find whom they can…
March 11, 2007
This driver should win some sort of award for bad driving:
A Bergen County woman was charged with driving under the influence after police said she mistook the landmark Boardwalk in Atlantic City for a road. Capt. Bill McKnight said he was on patrol when the vehicle sped by him Wednesday night.…
March 11, 2007
This one's right up my alley, and PZ, John, Joseph, and Bora have already weighed in. I've been a big SF fan since my very earliest days. (Indeed, one of my earliest memories of SF is reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle back in maybe third grade or so. So, when I learned of a list of the…
March 10, 2007
I didn't realize it, but today's the first anniversary of my first (and, as far as I know) only admitted blogchild, Good Math, Bad Math. Head on over and wish Mark a happy anniversary. He's filled a vitally needed role in the skeptical blogosphere, taking down questionable claims that rely on bad…
March 10, 2007
Well, not exactly "no comment." You know that Orac, being the annoyingly obnoxious skeptic that he is, has to put at least two cents in.
This one's just plain odd. I knew Rosie O'Donnell's not exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and she also borders on being a creduloid, at least with…
March 9, 2007
Yikes! It's almost upon us again. (Time seems to be going really fast these days.) Yes, next Thursday, March 15, the Skeptics' Circle will be arriving yet again to do battle with the credulity that pervades the blogosphere. So, if you are a skeptical blogger and like to apply your scientific and…
March 9, 2007
I'm told that today is P. Z. Myer's 50th birthday and that apparently he's requested poetry, now that he's hanging out with bigshots like Richard Dawkins, who actually did write him a poem. Cranky and contrary box of blinking lights that Orac is, you probably already know that Orac won't go along…
March 9, 2007
It's Friday, which means that it's time once again to delve deeply into the world of woo, all for your edification and (I hope) education. Even though I started out with less motivation than usual for tending to the blog, it actually turned out to be yet another rather eventful and surprisingly…
March 8, 2007
The latest Change of Shift, the blog carnival for nursing, has been posted at Emergiblog. Enjoy!
March 8, 2007
As longtimers around here know, I have a great interest in all things World War II, including the Holocaust. I've written numerous times, either in the context of discussing the Holocaust or while discussing bioethics and the evolution of about the horrific medical experiments carried out by the…
March 8, 2007
...That all around evolution-ignorant but nonetheless eager lapdog of the Discovery Institute, SUNY Stonybrook Professor of Neurosurgery Dr. Michael Egnor, is back.
Rats. I thought that the utter drubbing he took at the hands of myself and my fellow ScienceBloggers (in particular PZ Myers) might…
March 7, 2007
Believe it or not, the FCC is receiving a fair number of complaints over the Superbowl halftime show featuring His Purpleness, particularly the part where he did a bit of a phallic thing with his guitar (as if generations of rockers haven't done the whole guitar as wank-off thing since at least…
March 7, 2007
...even ten years after his death.
I kind of like the reaction in this photo. It cracks me up. Maybe I should find a permanent home for it somewhere on the blog.
(Don't ask me how I became aware of this one.)
March 7, 2007
Flea has a rather amusing response to a letter about GI symptoms in autistic children that left him scratching his head...
Don't feel insulted, Flea; occasionally, we get mass mailings from cancer advocacy groups or--much more annoying to me and unfortunately much more frequent--pharmaceutical…
March 7, 2007
I've posted many times about the pseudoscience of the mercury militia, that group of parents, bolstered by those Don Quixotes tilting at the mercury windmills in the cause of extracting more money from the government to compensate "vaccine-injured" children with autism, Mark and David Geier. These…
March 6, 2007
Last week, I wrote a quick and (semi-) facetious piece about how my colleague and I are sweating to the NIH payline, as we wait to find out whether our R01 application will be funded or not. With its being rumored that National Cancer Institute (NCI) paylines will be in the range of the 12th…
March 6, 2007
The latest Grand Rounds has been posted at the abode of everyone's favorite blogging emergency medicine doc, GruntDoc. It's the fourth time that he's hosted; so he's an old pro at it now.
Enjoy!
March 6, 2007
One byproduct of blogging that I had never anticipated when I started is how it sometimes gets me interested in scientific questions that I would never have paid much attention to before or looked into other than superficially. One such scientific question is whether dichloroacetate (DCA), the…
March 5, 2007
Sorry I'm a bit late on this. (Yes, I know that Tara and John pimped this contest nearly a month ago, but somehow it slipped by me to mention it myself; that is, until Skepchick reminded me of it as I caught up on my blog reading over the weekend.
If you've read my Medicine and Evolution series,…
March 5, 2007
One of the claims most frequently made by "alternative medicine" advocates regarding why alt-med is supposedly superior (or at least equal) to "conventional" medicine and should not be dismissed, regardless of how scientifically improbably any individual alt-med modality may be, is that the…
March 4, 2007
I'm not sure if the group above, Clowns for Christ, Inc. (complete with Gideon the Parrot, Precious the Super Dog, and illustrated Bible messages, songs, and clown tricks), is the group responsible for the training videos that I posted yesterday. If it's not, though, apparently clowning for…
March 4, 2007
In all the confusion, work, and excitement of the last week, including an NIH study section and a trip to give a talk, you may have thought that I've forgotten about a monthly feature that has been ongoing here since the very beginning and that will likely continue as long as (1) this blog exists…
March 3, 2007
It's history time, both good and bad!
First, there's the latest History Carnival.
Next, there's the Carnival of Bad History.
Enjoy!
March 3, 2007
In which Christian "clowns" are being trained to invade a nursing home to "entertain" the unfortunate residents trapped within.
Money quote: "If people are in need of touch, you touch them."
Coming from clowns, that just sounds a bit creepy to me.
Or maybe, "Clowns can look a bit intimidating if…